On Saturday morning I strolled along Minehead seafront into The Avenue to see the impact of the coronavirus hospitality shut-down order.

My spirits were lifted to see the Beach Hotel had opened a ground floor window offering a limited takeaway service and a free coffee for anyone in the police, fire, ambulance or NHS.

A small gesture of kindness but much appreciated I am sure.

A little further up the almost deserted Avenue I saw one of the few cars parked had a penalty notice stuck to the windscreen for overstaying the lone-hour limit. How mean-spirited was that?

Then I saw a rare sight - two community police officers patrolling the area.

Seeing my incredulous look of disappointment at the parking penalty notice, they said “Not us, madam - we don’t deal with traffic offences. We are here to make sure no one is ‘naughty’,” nodding towards some youngsters riding by on bikes.

When I said I thought a little leniency could have been used, given the depressing state of the nations’ mood, I was told “The law’s the law Madam”.

I wanted to reply “Yes, and who was it who said ‘the law is an ass’?” But I didn’t, for fear of being deemed “naughty”.

As many folk have remarked, this situation will bring out the worst and the best in society, and here was a clear example of this in a small, but beleaguered seaside town which I fear might never fully recover.

I do hope that traffic warden runs out of toilet roll soon!

Jenny Campbell, Trinity Way, Minehead.